November 12, 2012

One of the 'pluses' of my role in Mookah is that I get to go on lots of trips to great places for markets and events, and as you may already know, I love a good road trip. Over the last couple of weeks I got to visit one of my absolute favourite destinations. It was that relatively small place down below the rest of Australia, that is jam packed with places of absolute beauty and serenity, Tasmania. It was the first time Mookah has showcased its wares at the Tasmanian Craft Fair at Deloraine, which was a four day event over the Cup weekend, and we also discovered a few Tassie labels that we hope to be stocking at the Mookah Studio real soon.

We had some fantastic, quirky accommodation, staying in this little A-frame house in waterside Port Sorrell, sharing with some stallholder friends. Isn't it oh so cute?

After the craft fair my market offsider (Mum) and I stayed on for an extra two days of rest and relaxation in the Launceston area, where I took her to see some of my favourite places. Of course no trip to the Launceston area would be complete without visiting a few wineries in the Tamar Valley, so I took her to a couple of my favourites, being Pipers Brook where we had a leisurely lunch in the sunshine, and Bay of Fires, which has some of my all time favourite wines.

Our other spare day was spent tramping up through Cataract Gorge and visiting my list of 'to see' shops in Launceston. One I've been to before but wouldn't miss an opportunity to visit is the The Mill - Providore & Gallery, which was just across the road from our accommodation. This place is full of beautiful locally grown produce and other clothing, gifts and homewares, all focusing on Tassie grown and made.

Another on the list was eco co, full of beautiful homewares, clothing and gifts. They even had a beautiful chair recovered in Cloth's Spotcheck fabric, similar to mine!

And last but certainly not least, the shop I've been dying to visit for ages, Cocoon in George St. I've been following this shop online for ages and it was great to be able to see for myself. An absolutely beautiful little shop focusing on Australian made/designer labels, right up my alley!

While we were wandering up George St looking for Cocoon, we stumbled across a little pop up shop called 'et la mer' and of course couldn't resist the temptation to check it out. While there were many beautiful things, the thing that took caught my eye was a display of organic screenprinted cushions from The Spotted Quoll. I didn't buy any cushions, but I couldn't help myself and had to buy a set of prints to frame and hang on my walls at home. If you're in Launceston, get in quick and check out this pop up shop!

All in all, another lovely visit to beautiful Tasmania. May there be many more to come in the future!